Publisher-tested, wizard-approved

Evidently Harry Potter author JK Rowling can talk as good as she writes.

There’s a story circulating the net right now that the plucky Brit convinced airport security officials in New York to allow her to take the manuscript for the latest (and allegedly last) Harry Potter book onto a plane in her carry-on bag last month even though cabin luggage restrictions had been ridiculously tightened on flights to and from the UK at the time.

Now, aside from the fact that I’m not sure how a stack of hand-written papers could be used to bring down a jetliner, I can certainly understand why Ms. Rowling did not want to turn over something that valuable to the baggage-handling system. She refused to board the plane without the manuscript, and has told fans on her website that she probably would have returned to England by ship if she hadn’t eventually been allowed to take it into the cabin with her.